Windows Command Reference

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1

Windows Command

Reference

Programs Provided with Windows

This appendix lists all the programs installed by Windows Setup on the 32-bit versions of

Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP (Home Edition, Professional, and Media Center

Edition), and Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate),

with all optional components installed. It also lists some programs installed by Windows

Update and Automatic Updates.

The purpose of this appendix is to help you identify programs that you find running in your

Task Manager window, and to let you browse for interesting standard programs that you might

not be aware of. The programs fall into several categories:

¡ö Graphical User Interface (GUI) programs, such as Notepad and Internet Explorer. GUI

programs are delivered as executable files with an .EXE filename extension.

¡ö Command-line (console) utilities such as ping and dir. Most command-line programs

are delivered as executable (.EXE and .COM) files, with the exception of a few script files

(.VBS and .JS), and some ¡°built-in¡± commands that are handled directly by the command prompt processor cmd.exe or .

¡ö Control Panel applets, screensavers, and Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snapins. The files have corresponding filename extensions: .SCR for screensavers, .MSC for

MMC snap-ins, and .CPL for Control Panel applets.

¡ö Components such as device drivers, Windows services, and programs used solely as

¡°helper¡± components of other programs. These programs may have a filename extension

that makes them look like standard programs, but they are not useful on their own.

This appendix does not list the optional programs installed from the \TOOLS folder on the

Windows Setup CD-ROM or DVD, although it does lists a few subcomponents of these tools

that end up under your \windows folder. The tools themselves are listed in Appendix A,

¡°Windows Tool Reference.¡±

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Appendix B

Windows Command Reference

Running Applications and Components

Applications can be started in the following ways:

¡ö GUI and command-line programs can be run from shortcuts, from Windows Explorer, or, if

they are in a folder listed in the PATH environment variable, by typing their name in the

Start Menu¡¯s Run dialog, or at the prompt in a Command Prompt window. On Windows

Vista, you can also type a command name into the Start Menu¡¯s search box, and in most

cases, Windows will locate and run the program.

¡ö Script files can be run by name, or can be forced to run in GUI or command-line mode

with the wscript or cscript commands, respectively. For more information on scripting,

see Chapter 9, ¡°Windows Commands and Scripting.¡±

¡ö MMC snap-ins can be run using the start command, for example

start compmgmt.msc

or by installing them into an MMC panel. On Windows XP and 2000, you can run an

MMC snap-in with Administrator privileges by typing the command

runas /user:Administrator ¡°cmd /c xxxx.msc¡±

On Windows Vista, you don¡¯t need to use runas, as the User Account Control prompt will

appear if the snap-in requires administrative privileges. You just can type the snap-in¡¯s filename into the Start menu¡¯s search box.

¡ö Control Panel applets can be run from the Control Panel or from the command line, as in

this example:

control timedate.cpl

On Windows 2000 and XP, you can run a Control Panel applet with Administrator privileges by typing the command

runas /user:Administrator ¡°control xxxx.cpl¡±

Again, on Vista, runas is not needed.

This technique does not work with ncpa.cpl, however, unless you have previously configured Windows Explorer to launch folder windows in separate processes, by checking this

option in the Tools, Folder Options, View tab. If you are using runas, the option has to

have been set while logged on to the account that you specify in the runas command.

x.scr /s

¡ö Device drivers and services cannot be run directly, but are managed by tools such as the

Services MMC snap-in (services.msc) or the net start command-line utility. Some

Windows services are packaged as .DLL files and are executed by the svchost.exe program.

Services are discussed in Chapter 4.

Command-Line Syntax

To use a command-line utility, you have to know its particular command-line syntax; that is, you

have to know how to add options, filenames, and other control information to the command

line. To get help for a given command¡ªlet¡¯s call it xxx¡ªthere are four things to try, in this order:

¡ö Search for xxx in the Windows Help and Support Center.

¡ö Type xxx -? | more in a command prompt window.

Programs Provided with Windows

Appendix B

B3

¡ö Type help xxx | more in a command prompt window.

¡ö Perform a Google search for Windows command xxx.

Note

The more command is used to keep text from scrolling out of view if there¡¯s more than one screen. If some text is displayed and then the printout stops, press the spacebar to display the next screen.

There¡¯s no way to tell beforehand which one or more of these methods will work, so you should

try all four. For more information on using command-line programs, see Chapter 9.

NOTE

On Windows Vista, most of the information for command line programs has been deleted from the Help and

Support Center. Your best bet on Vista is to use the -? and help options, or use Internet sources, as discussed in

Chapter 9. Alternately, look up help information on a computer running XP.

Legend

In the tables that follow, the Filename column lists the names of program files installed in the

various standard Windows folders. The filename¡¯s extension indicates the type of program file.

Extension

Description

.BAT

Batch file (a text file containing a sequence of commands)

.CMD

Batch file (alternate extension)

.COM

MS-DOS executable program

.CPL

Control Panel applet (actually a dynamic link library loaded and used by control.exe)

.EXE

Windows GUI program, Windows command-line program, or MS-DOS program

.JS

JavaScript script (a text file containing a program written in the JavaScript language)

.MSC

MMC snap-in (actually a dynamic link library or XML file meant to be loaded and used by

mmc.exe)

.SCR

Screensaver (actually a standard Windows executable file)

.SYS

MS-DOS device driver

.VBS

VBScript script (a text file containing a program written in the VBScript language)

.WSF

Windows Script Host packaged script

The OS column indicates the operating system(s) with which the program comes.

OS

Operating System Versions

2

Windows 2000 Professional

X

Windows XP Home Edition, Professional, or Media Center Edition

V

Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate

Not every version of these operating systems includes all the listed files, and the tables list files

included only with the 32-bit versions of the operating systems. For instance WFS.EXE, Windows

B4

Appendix B

Windows Command Reference

Fax and Scan, is only found in the Ultimate, Enterprise, and Business editions of Vista. In addition, some files are installed only if you install optional Windows components (¡°Turn Windows

Features On or Off¡± on Vista).

The Type column indicates the general category into which the program falls.

Type

Description

Directly Executable

by the User?

CMD

Command-line (console) program

Yes

DOS

MS-DOS application or driver

Yes

drv

Windows device driver

No

GUI

Graphical User Interface (windowed) application

Yes

ndu

Not directly usable, meant to assist some other application

No

SCR

Batch file, or script handled by Windows Script Host

(cscript or wscript)

Yes

svc

Windows service (Services are discussed in Chapter 4)

No

UNIX

Services for UNIX-Based Applications application

Yes

In the Description column, Source indicates the source of a program if it is not installed by

Windows Setup. Some programs can have several alternative sources. For example, the .NET

Framework may be installed by a Service Pack, Windows Update, a download from

, or as part of a third-party application.

Filename

OS

Type

Description

ACW.exe

V

GUI

Windows Guided Help

accwiz.exe

2X

GUI

Accessibility Wizard

actmovie.exe

2X

ndu

Direct Show setup tool

AdapterTroubleshooter.exe

V

ndu

Display troubleshooter

admin.exe

2X

ndu

FrontPage Server Extensions component

adsutil.vbs

2XV

SCR

Manages IIS server through ADSI (sample script)

agentsvr.exe

2XV

ndu

Microsoft Agent (animated assistant) component

agtcore.js

X

ndu

Component of ¡°out-of-box¡± experience, initial

setup wizard

agtscrp2.js

X

ndu

Windows help script component

agtscrpt.js

X

ndu

Component of ¡°out-of-box¡± experience, initial

setup wizard

ahui.exe

X

ndu

Application Compatibility Wizard component

alg.exe

XV

svc

Application Layer Gateway Service¡ªProvides

support for third-party protocol plug-ins for ICS

and ICF

ansi.sys

2XV

DOS

ANSI screen driver for MS-DOS subsystem

appcmd.exe

V

CMD

IIS Application Server admin tool

append.exe

2XV

DOS

Makes directories appear ¡°local¡± (archaic)

AppLaunch.exe

V

ndu

Microsoft .NET ClickOnce launch utility

arcldr.exe

2

ndu

Used by Windows boot process

Programs Provided with Windows

B5

Appendix B

Filename

OS

Type

Description

arcsetup.exe

2

ndu

Used by Windows boot process

arp.exe

2XV

CMD

Displays and edits ARP cache (TCP/IP)

arpidfix.exe

X

ndu

Windows Update component

aspnet_compiler.exe

V

CMD

application compiler

aspnet_regbrowsers.exe

V

CMD

Adds data on web browsers to database

aspnet_regiis.exe

2XV

CMD

Used to maintain correct linkage between different installed versions of .NET Framework and

applications installed under IIS (source:

.NET Framework)

aspnet_regsql.exe

V

CMD

Associates MS SQL Server databases with

applications

aspnet_state.exe

2XV

svc

Holds session state data for web-based

applications (source: .NET Framework)

aspnet_wp.exe

2XV

ndu

runtime process¡ªCGI application that

runs web-based applications on behalf

of IIS (source: .NET Framework)

aspnetca.exe

V

ndu

setup component

asr_fmt.exe

X

CMD

Automated System Recovery backup and restore

asr_ldm.exe

X

CMD

Automated System Recovery Logical Disk manager

asr_pfu.exe

X

ndu

Automated System Recovery component

at.exe

2XV

CMD

Schedules program to run automatically (obsolete)

AtBroker.exe

V

ndu

Supports Accessibility tools across Remote

Desktop sessions

atmadm.exe

2X

CMD

Displays ATM Call Manager statistics

attrib.exe

2XV

CMD

Displays and sets file/folder attributes

audioconverter.exe

X

GUI

Windows Audio Converter, converts music files

between different encoding formats (source:

Standard on MCE, otherwise Plus! for Windows

XP)

audiodg.exe

V

ndu

Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation

audit.exe

V

ndu

Windows setup component

auditpol.exe

V

CMD

Audit Policy configuration tool

auditusr.exe

X

CMD

Manages per-user audit policy settings

author.exe

2X

ndu

FrontPage Server Extensions component (CGI

application)

autochk.exe

2XV

ndu

Checks and repairs Windows File Systems

autoconv.exe

2XV

ndu

Automates the file system conversion during

reboots

autoexec.bat

XV

DOS

Batch file executed upon Windows startup

autofmt.exe

2XV

ndu

Automates the file format process during reboots

autolfn.exe

2X

ndu

Used for formatting long filenames

AxInstUI.exe

V

ndu

ActiveX Installer Service

(continues)

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